Members attending the meeting of Kynaston Lodge No. 5810 in Cambridgeshire on 6th December 2018 witnessed a rare event with the twin sons of Past Master Lee Wilson both initiated by their father in a moving and memorable ceremony

The Worshipful Master, Ted Ridgway Watt, vacated the Chair to Lee Wilson for him to initiate his sons, William Lee Wilson and James Patrick Wilson. The ceremony was carried out by Lee and the Lodge Officers with precision and concluded with the Ancient Charge being presented by their uncle, Andrew Fordham.

Andrew presented them each with a scrolled and personalised copy of the Charge together with a copy of the First Degree Ritual book before introducing them to their Personal Mentor.

Lee has been a working operative stonemason since 1982 and has worked on many fine buildings across the country.

In his toast to his sons at the Festive Board, Lee said: ‘I am immensely proud to have initiated my twin sons into Freemasonry. Both William and James’ achievements have exceeded my dreams for them and bringing them into Kynaston Lodge will further strengthen their bond together and also with their new brethren in masonry.’

26 years ago both boys had spent eight weeks in intensive care after being born. After schooling at Comberton Village College and Hills Road Sixth Form College, William attended Reading University to read History and Archaeology and gained a Master’s degree in Archaeology. He now works at Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the very place that inspired his passion for both subjects.

James’ path lead him to the University of Nottingham after a short spell working for his father and there gained a degree in Agriculture and Livestock Production Science. He is now back at Nottingham and working toward a PhD in Management of the lameness in cattle and is a member of the University Shooting Club.

David Atkinson, a member of Granta Lodge No. 6179 in the Province of Cambridgeshire, has returned to the Falkland Islands for the first time since the war ended in 1982

David joined the Royal Navy in 1972 (Naval Canteen Service) and was selected to join the crew of HMS Endurance during the Falklands conflict. He later served on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, but had to retire from the Royal Navy in 1991 due to loss of his sight.

As a recipient of the South Atlantic Medal, David took advantage of a concessionary flight and travelled by Voyager, the largest Royal Air Force aircraft, on the ‘air bridge’ between RAF Brize Norton and the Falklands.

During the trip David, together with his guide Phil Drewery, who also served on HMS Endurance, stayed at Liberty Lodge in Port Stanley. There they visited a number of battlefields including Goose Green and Fitzroy. David also presented Nigel Phillips CBE, Governor of the Falklands, with a Blind Veterans UK tie and laid a wreath at the 1982 Liberation Memorial.

David said: ‘I wanted to go back to pay my respects and see how things had changed. It was a very emotional trip and an honour to remember those who fell in battle.

‘My thanks go to Blind Veterans UK and the Falklands Veterans Foundation for helping to make this trip happen. The support I have received from Blind Veterans UK has been brilliant. I have received training and equipment which has enabled me to do everyday tasks which were otherwise impossible. I was a keen canoer before losing my sight and Blind Veterans UK gave me the opportunity to get back on the water.’

Via Rolls-Royce, camper van, horse and cart, speedboat and tandem bicycle, Lifelites chief executive Simone Enefer-Doy travelled 2,500 miles in two weeks to raise the profile of this hard-working charity

Providing life-changing assistive technology, Lifelites helps the 10,000 children and young people in hospices across the British Isles live their short lives to the full. On 25 May 2018, the charity’s chief executive, Simone Enefer-Doy, set off on an epic road, air and river trip to spread the word and raise funds.

The 2,500-mile challenge, called Lift for Lifelites, was to take in 47 famous landmarks in England and Wales in just 14 days. For each leg of the journey, Simone received a lift from Provincial supporters in an eclectic mix of transportation. After setting an initial target of raising £50,000 for Lifelites, the total now stands at over £104,000. Simone says she has been astounded at the support and generosity she encountered as she travelled around the country.

‘Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that so many people would come out to meet me on my journey and support my challenge. We have received a terrific welcome wherever we have gone, and it really spurred me on to continue whenever I felt myself flagging. I would like to thank everyone – drivers, donors and venues – for helping to make Lift for Lifelites happen. We couldn’t have done it without you.’

If you’d like Lifelites to come to one of your Provincial meetings to make a presentation about Simone’s adventure and how the charity will use the money, please get in touch via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 0207 440 4200.

Lifelites Chief Executive Simone Enefer-Doy has left Freemasons' Hall to kick-start her 2,500 mile journey to 47 famous landmarks to raise awareness of Lifelites and £50,000 for the charity

Dubbed 'A Lift for Lifelites', Simone will see Freemasons in nearly every Province in England and Wales and will be stopping at landmarks such as Hadrian’s Wall, Angel of the North and Bletchley Park in vehicles including a classic Rolls Royce, a camper van, a four seater plane, an E Type Jaguar and even a zip wire.

Simone said: 'With the help of Freemasons and their vehicles around the country, I’m on a mission to raise the profile of our work and raise more funds to reach more children whose lives could be transformed by the technology we can provide.'

We'll be updating this page regularly, including images, as Simone continues on her epic quest.

Day 14 – Thursday 7 June

That's a wrap! Simone completed her 14 day challenge and finished in style on ThamesJet speedboat with guests including United Grand Lodge of England Chief Executive Dr David Staples. Her fundraising currently stands at over £103,000.

Day 13 – Wednesday 6 June

It's the penultimate day, starting with a trip to Bedfordshire at the Shuttleworth Collection. The next stop was Silverstone racetrack in Northamptonshire, which included completing a lap in a Jaguar, before driving this to Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. The last trip was to the home, studios and gardens of former artist Henry Moore in Hertfordshire.

Day 12 – Tuesday 5 June

Day 12 took in journeys across Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The first stop was Gordon Boswell Romany Museum in Lincolnshire before using two vehicles, a Hudson Straight Six Touring Sedan and a Range Rover, to Bressington Steam and Gardens in Norfolk. There was still time to grab lunch at Bury St Edmunds Abbey in Suffolk before a BMW took Simone to her final stop in Cambridgeshire, which included a punt on the River Cam.

Day 11 – Monday 4 June

Simone crammed in four locations to start the week, with a wide variety of vehicles used. The day started in Yorkshire Sculpture Park before driving a 1977 Bentley to the National Tramway Museum in Derbyshire. It was from here that Simone then picked up a DeLorean to take her to Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire before completing the day by driving a gold Rolls-Royce to Victoria Park in Leicestershire.

Day 10 – Sunday 3 June

The week concludes with trips to Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire and East Riding, as well as the news that Simone had already hit her £50,000 target. Trips included the Millennium Bridge in Northumberland, the Angel of the North and a scenic drive across the Yorkshire Moors to Bolton Castle.

Day 9 – Saturday 2 June

Day nine saw visits to the Provinces of West Lancashire and Cumberland and Westmorland, with landmarks including Hadrian’s Wall in Cumbria and transport provided by a horse and cart.

Day 8 – Friday 1 June

Two Rolls-Royces helped provide the transport on day nine, with Simone starting at the Avoncroft Museum in Worcestershire, driving down to New Place in Warwickshire and then to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. There was still time to conclude the day by visiting Manchester Cathedral in East Lancashire.

Day 7 – Thursday 31 May

At the halfway point, Simone made trips to Cheshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire – starting out at the Georgian Hall Dunham Massey, then heading to the RAF Museum Cosford in a custom built Rewaco Bike and finally, to Arthur’s Stone.

Day 6 – Wednesday 30 May

Day six was solely focused in North Wales where Simone took on the challenge of the fastest zip wire in the world. This was then followed by making the journey to Chester in a six month old blue McLaren Spider and flanked by the Widows’ Sons motorcyclists and Blood Bike volunteers.

Day 5 – Tuesday 29 May

Day five was a journey across the borders for Simone as she ventured to Oxfordshire before heading west to Monmouthshire and continued to South Wales and West Wales. Landmarks included Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, Caerleon Amphitheatre in Newport, the Donald Gordon theatre in Cardiff and ending the day in the county town of Carmarthen to meet the Provincial Grand Lodge of West Wales.

Day three involved journeys to Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. It started with a visit to Lulworth Cove in Dorset to be met by members from the Provincial Grand Lodge in a yellow camper van and to receive a donation of £2,000. Simone then ventured to Buckfast Abbey to receive a donation of £5,000 from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Devonshire before departing in a classic Rover to head to Lanhydrock House and Garden in Cornwall, where she received another donation of £1,750.

Day 2 – Saturday 26 May

Simone took to the sky for day two, meeting a representative from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hampshire and Isle of Wight who drove her to Southampton to board a flight to Jersey, to meet members of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Guernsey and Alderney.

Day 1 – Friday 25 May

Simone has begun her challenge, leaving in a taxi escorted by a fleet of Widows Sons motorcyclists. This is the start of her 14 day road trip with a difference, using a variety of unusual and extraordinary forms of transport.

The next destination for Friday was Richmond Park where Simone was met by representatives from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Middlesex after arriving in a Porsche 550 Spyder. Further destinations included Guildford Cathedral, where Simone was met by a Noddy car, and Brighton Royal Pavilion, where the Provincial Grand Lodge of Sussex made a donation of £5,000.

Lifelites has a package of their magical technology at every children’s hospice across the British Isles and their work is entirely funded by donations. Through the journey they are seeking to raise £50,000 – that’s the cost of one of their projects for four years.

The first Tercentenary event of the Province of Cambridgeshire was deemed a huge success when more than 1,000 people enjoyed a special concert at Ely Cathedral in association with the Dean and Chapter

Suffolk soprano Laura Wright was the star attraction, accompanied by the cathedral choir and the Ely Imps (a choir of children aged seven to 13), under the direction of the cathedral’s director of music Paul Trepte and assistant organist Edmund Aldhouse.

Provincial Grand Master William Dastur welcomed everyone to the concert and thanked the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral together with the sponsors for their support. The concert raised £25,000, to be divided between the Ely Cathedral Trust and East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices.

14 September 2016 An address by the RW Deputy Grand Master Jonathan Spence

Brethren, I am delighted to see so many of you here today and I hope you have all had a suitably refreshing summer. I am particularly pleased to see a large number of younger masons amongst us, especially the delegations from the Provinces of Cambridgeshire and Durham, members of the Universities Scheme and especially those of the Apollo University Lodge in Oxford.

Many of you will be aware of the excellent work undertaken by the Membership Focus Group over the last two and a half years. I hope that you are all still referring to the UGLE strategy, which was a significant development resulting from the group’s work.

We have now moved to ensuring the timely implementation of the strategy and the Membership Focus Group has been superseded by the Improvement Delivery Group. This group will, rather like a well- known wood treatment product, “do exactly what it says on the tin”. Its remit is to facilitate the delivery of change throughout the Craft in order to secure a successful future for Freemasonry by meeting the needs of “modern man” while retaining our traditional standards; it is chaired by the Assistant Grand Master, the Third Grand Principal is Deputy Chairman and the membership is drawn from London and all the regional groups of Provinces.

This group will be “bedding in” for the next year, but will be reporting to Grand Lodge at the Quarterly Communication in September 2017. There is a considerable amount of work to do and we wish them all well in their endeavours.

Brethren, the Tercentenary celebrations have already begun and I am very pleased to see the variety and breadth of events that are planned to mark this significant milestone in our history. Events are being planned throughout the English Constitution.

So far well over 100 events are scheduled ranging from Cathedral Services, Race Meetings, and Classic Car Rallies; Family Fun Weekends, supporting Youth Activities, to Dinners and Balls, including “The Grand Ball” which will take place here next September and will see this Grand Temple converted into one of the largest dance floors in LondAs the premier Grand Lodge it is appropriate we also celebrate this achievement with the other Sovereign Grand Lodges around the world, which we will do with the event at the Royal Albert Hall. I very much hope there will be a full cross section of our membership, including Master Masons, from London, Provinces and Districts and elsewhere overseas attending the meeting at the Royal Albert Hall.

As you are all aware 2017 will start with the broadcast in January of the Sky observational documentary. I have been fortunate enough to have been part of the small group that has seen all the programmes and whilst, for confidential reasons, I am unable to say more about their content, I can assure you our privacy has been respected entirely for those matters that ought to remain private for our members.

Brethren, it has become very noticeable that the times in which we live are described with some use of either uncertain or uncertainty, or a variation thereof. Uncertainty is used to describe many aspects of our national life almost as a default mechanism. In many ways our predecessors who were there at the foundation of the Grand Lodge would have felt a certain affinity and seen possible parallels with their own time, although they would probably have used the word turbulent to describe the second decade of the eighteenth century.

In their case the uncertain times included significant change with a new ruling dynasty following the accession of King George I in 1714, a significant rebellion from supporters of the old dynasty defeated in 1715 and an incipient share scandal with the South Sea Bubble gently inflating until the spectacular bust. In those and, indeed , in the intervening uncertain times of the subsequent three hundred years, the principles of the Craft have withstood the test of time and are as relevant today as they were then.

We may now restate them in more modern language as integrity; honesty; fairness; kindness and tolerance, but their essence is unchanged and we should all be justly proud of them and, needless to say, act in accordance with them.

To finish, I will quote King Frederick II, or The Great, of Prussia who said his support of the Craft came from its objectives being, “ the intellectual elevation of men as members of society and making them more virtuous and more charitable”. I do not think that his view can be bettered.

Lynn Morgan, Arthur Rank Hospice Charity CEO, went to a special event hosted by Cambridgeshire Freemasons at Ely Cathedral to mark the retirement of Rodney Wolverson after 10 years as Provincial Grand Master. During the evening, Rodney presented a cheque for £100,000 towards the Arthur Rank Hospice Building Appeal.

This was one of three substantial donations made over the past 18 months since Rodney challenged the Province to raise a six-figure sum for the hospice appeal. A donation of £100,000 was made last June, with another cheque for £15,000 presented during the Act of Dedication for the hospice.

The expert research team, led by Prof Clemens Kaminski at the University of Cambridge, want to understand the chain of events that occur right at the beginning of the onset of the disease. The scientists hope the knowledge gained from this vital research will offer new clues for treatment.

Ian Wilson, Director of Fundraising at Alzheimer’s Research UK who accepted the £175,000 donation said: “We are delighted that The Freemasons’ Grand Charity and the Masonic Samaritan Fund have chosen to support Alzheimer’s Research UK’s fight to defeat dementia.

“Research holds the answers to find ways to prevent, diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, but it is massively underfunded. This huge contribution will fund two years of pioneering research at the University of Cambridge. As an independent charity, Alzheimer’s Research UK is completely reliant on the generosity of donors and this marvellous donation will take us all closer to a world free of dementia.”

Alzheimer’s disease, which affects memory and thinking, is characterised by the build-up of two toxic proteins – amyloid and tau. These protein clumps cause damage to nerve cells and lead to the symptoms experienced by those living with Alzheimer’s. But it is still not fully understood how these clumps of protein inflict damage on nerve cells. This generous support from the two Masonic charities will help Dr Kaminski and his team quite literally shine a light on the initial stages of Alzheimer’s.

Peter Sutton, Provincial Information Officer for Cambridgeshire Freemasons, said: “We are delighted to support Alzheimer’s Research UK in its mission to undertake pioneering research that brings us closer to a treatment for this cruel disease.

“Alzheimer’s is a disease that touches so many of us, family, friends and colleagues. All Cambridgeshire Freemasons look forward to following the progress of Professor Kaminski and his team as they strive to understand the fundamental basics underlying Alzheimer’s disease. Freemasons throughout the country are proud to be part of the fight against dementia.”

Three years of planning – following a suggestion by Jim Morris of St Clair Lodge, No. 24, in Belleville, Illinois – resulted in a trip by English masons to St Louis, Missouri, that involved four degree demonstrations in 10 days. Members of ﬁve London lodges, three from Essex, and one each from West Kent and Cambridgeshire, formed the nine-strong demonstration team. One demonstration was held in St Louis and three in Belleville.